Fluke Hydra 2625 with NI LabVIEW drivers: cannot read data ouput

[Tessa]

I am working with a Fluke Hydra 2625 data logger, have downloaded the NI LabVIEW drivers, ran through the config., initialize and set modes files, and am now trying to read the data for a thermocouple. 

Initially, I was getting an error message ("17" I think) but now, after correcting the port numbers, the data logger and LabVIEW seem to be communicating without error. I would like to know where I should look (within the front panels of the various drivers) for the temperature data output.

Any advice would be appreciated at this point. Thanks.  

[Jason_D]

Tessa,

Where did you get the drivers for this device?  I don't see those drivers anywhere on our site.  It they were made by a co-worker or another company I would suggest asking them as they probably have the most working knowledge of these VIs.  If you are looking to figure this out yourself you can probably go to the block diagram and see if you can figure out where the read is happening and route that to the appropriate indicator.  Don't forget that you may be seeing voltage readings that need to be scaled to temperature.

[Dennis_Knutson · Accepted solution]

There is an unsupported driver here. I don't have the instrument and haven't used one in quite a few years but if using the example, the function can be set for temperature with thermocouple or temperature with 751 RTD. The results will be in the min/max/last indicators.

The driver could really benefit from a whole rewrite but it looks like most of the basic functions are there.

[Tessa]

Thank you both for the responses. I am able to get readout from a thermocouple (in the "read values" VI) using drivers that are available for the Fluke Hydra 2625 on the NI website. (The drivers are not supported.)

I have another question. I would like to collect data every second for ten minutes (just from the thermocouple for now), average these values, then ouput the average into an array, to later be sent to an Excel file for data analysis. I've tried various combinations of for loops, while loops, build arrays, shift registers, etc. but have not been able to create an array that fills up with ten-minute-average data. Any suggestions? 

The eventual goal will be to use the data logger to provide voltage and current readings from a wind turbine, collected every second, and averaged over 10 minute intervals. 

Thanks, 

Tessa

[Dennis_Knutson]

What you want to do should be pretty simple. A Wait (ms) inside your acquisition loop (a while loop) will give you a reading every second and you can use the Elapsed Time function to stop the loop after 10 minutes. Wire the data returned through the loop and enable indexing to give you an array.

Your requirements are a bit confusing though. First you say you want to run and then average. Then you say you want to output the average into an array. Which one is it? Do you mean that after the 10 minutes, you want to repeat and get another average?

Post what you have written.

Message Edited by Dennis Knutson on 11-16-2009 05:40 PM

[mprimrose]

Tessa,

If you can post what you have written we can definitely help.  I am starting to work on a Hydra driver as well.  I will share here my vi next week.

Mark

[Tessa_24]

I've modified the LabVIEW driver (2008 version) available on NI's website to gather data from three channels. Two of the channels are currently connected to thermocouples and the third reads dc voltage.

The goal of this VI is to collect data from all three channels every few seconds for an extended period - we'll say 10 days. I would like 10-minute averages (so the average of the every-few-second data points for a 10-minute period) sent to a spreadsheet at the end of the 10 day period. After 10 days, I'll restart the program and collect another 10 days worth of 10 minute averages, etc.

My question is: I continue to get "serial port read call has exceeded time limit" error. As far as my settings go, I'm using Port 1, have enable scanning set to on, the appropriate channel number set for each channel, as well as the thermocouple or dc voltage settings accordingly. The datalogger works fine. I checked this. The "read values", initialize, and configure subVIs all seem to work fine. In fact, when I execute the "read data" VI for each of the three channels separately, it returns the correct values. However, when I try to execute the file as a whole, I get the serial port read call error. 

I know the design isn't great. It's slow - could be more efficient but I don't have the expertise to write my own driver...so, I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for other things to try to fix the problem. (I've read troubleshooting suggestions of placing another VI for elapsed time capture, but am thinking there must be something easier, some detail I'm just missing with my VI.) 

Thank you. 

I've attached the file. The main VI is titled Fluke 2625A 3channels.vi

[Tessa_24]

The "read data" subVI I referred to in the previous post is actually the "read values" subVI, if anyone takes a look at the program.

Thanks

[Dennis_Knutson]

Do you actually have two different instruments you are trying to read from? That would be the only explanation for that program with two separate while loops. If you have a single instrument, then the second loop makes no sense at all.

[Tessa_24]

No, only one instrument. I tried putting multiple channels into one while loop but apparently didn't do it correctly because I wasn't able to get any data to read out.